Looking for suggestions on home security cameras (for outside use)

[purbeast0]

I'm looking into getting a camera (or a couple) that I can put outside my house. It's primarily just to put it by our door looking out into the street and also our porch (if wide enough). I'm also contemplating getting one for the back door as well.

I saw my buddies Ring camera which had really great quality and he had the solar panel for it too, which was nice. I'm looking for something similar, in the sense that it doesn't have to be plugged in to be powered and can run on solar power. I just want ease of use and installation as a major factor in which one I get.

I also want to have the ability to view it anywhere from my phone at any time, which I think the majority of these devices do now. He showed me the Ring app and it was very nice, and the quality of the video was noticeably better than the Yi camera we use inside for my toddlers bedroom.

So anyone have any suggestions, other than the Ring brand, that would meet these requirements?

 

[vi edit]

Do you care about subscription services? Or do you want it to be a self contained "buy and no more monthly cost" kind of thing?

 

[vi edit]

Do you care about subscription services? Or do you want it to be a self contained "buy and no more monthly cost" kind of thing?

 

[purbeast0]

I'm looking for one that gives me the option to do a monthly subscription service, similar to what Ring does from what my buddy told me. You can pay (per camera I believe) a monthly fee so that you have archives of the videos you can go back to if need be. I don't need the type of security where an alarm goes off and they call your house and shit, like ADT or what not.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Keep in mind that with those cloud based services if your internet goes out, you're not getting any recording at all.

I would do a system where it's self contained, but also backs up to cloud in real time. I'd be curious myself if such systems exist as I'm not aware of any. Thinking it could just use SSH FTP or w/e to write directly to it. If the internet goes out it would continue to also write locally.

POE is probably the best way to go for the cameras themselves, you need a source of battery backed up power anyway so it makes sense to just have everything go to a single location with a big UPS that the DVR is on too.

 

[purbeast0]

Keep in mind that with those cloud based services if your internet goes out, you're not getting any recording at all.

I would do a system where it's self contained, but also backs up to cloud in real time. I'd be curious myself if such systems exist as I'm not aware of any. Thinking it could just use SSH FTP or w/e to write directly to it. If the internet goes out it would continue to also write locally.

POE is probably the best way to go for the cameras themselves, you need a source of battery backed up power anyway so it makes sense to just have everything go to a single location with a big UPS that the DVR is on too.

I'm not really concerned about that. If my power is out for a while, chances are there is 3 feet of snow on the ground and there isn't anything to worry about. I'm not too worried about anything happening in my neighborhood anyways, but it's more for piece of mind.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah true I guess with snow there will be foot prints so you'll know someone was scouting, even if cameras go down. It's a pretty small risk anyway assuming your internet is reliable.

Ironicly we've had outages here caused by snow removal. Idiot dump truck driver forgot to put the box down and it riped a bunch of cables lol.

 

[Carson Dyle]

The Axis Q6115-E is excellent.

 

[purbeast0]

Yeah I believe you, but if I'm looking for alternatives to a $200 or so camera, chances are I'm not looking for cameras over $2k.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Well, you didn't give a budget, and we all know that you can easily afford three or four $2500 cameras.

 

[purbeast0]

Being able to easily afford stuff and it being smart to buy it are 2 different things.

Hmmm maybe this is something @madoka could spend his money on instead of a house or car!?